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Setback: Robert Nelson offers a provocation against gardens in this on suburban sprawl.

Article Excerpt
I love gardens. They are an adorable amenity, a balm to the eye and the feet in an age of machines and skyscrapers. In prosperous and spacious countries like Australia you can still enjoy a secluded spot, a quiet stretch of verdant land, a place of your own that has nature in it. In the gentle garden you have a sanctuary at the back or side of the house where flowers yield colour, shrubs veil the masonry or screen out the ugly fences, while trees provide an overhead canopy, protecting you from the glare and heat of the sun. In a garden there are many seductions. To the charm of nature you can add the condiment of little fountains and sculptures and episodic pathways and borders. With nothing more than a bird bath nature is enjoined to follow our architectural fancies, as the garden magically resonates with the chirping of winged fauna and entertains their seasonal frolicsome mating. While only a block away the traffic roars unrelentingly, the pace of the garden belongs to an earlier age, an eternal time, the age of nature itself, with its literally earthy roots and healthy chthonic smells. Compensating for the filth and pressure of the cars and other emissions of industry, the private garden gives off vital oxygen and remains one of the most appealing and widespread symbols of ecological sanity.

Unfortunately, however, this is the one virtue that suburban gardens do not have. Far from a reserve of ecological restoration, gardens are an ecological catastrophe. In spite of my natural affection for gardens and all that they symbolise, I have had to recognise some sobering truths about these most popular and apparently harmless suburban sites. There is a causal chain of environmental disasters shackled to the suburban garden. Because we have gardens we have low-rise buildings, jealously regulated by setback provisions in order to protect the privacy of neighbouring gardens. The setback legislation guarantees the perpetual maintenance of low-density cities. And because we have an urban sprawl by this legal resolution, we have an ineffectual public transport system, with a consequent reliance on automotive transport. The reason for much of the fumes in the city--the exorbitant generation of greenhouse gases, with its incalculable damage to the environment--is the suburban garden.

It is sad, because people live for their gardens. It's the place for the weekend and many joyful hours of work, design and contemplation, where you can also have parties, barbecues and open-air smoking. In Australia, New Zealand and even the United...

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